Do grades really matter ?

I think the original question was, 'do grades in Graduate School matter after you have graduated'? The answer to that, from my experience and what we have read here, is 'it depends'.

Some employers will ask for your GPA while in Grad School if you apply, but if your grades are good, this is a plus.

 

It is interesting to note that HBS(Harvard Business School) just announced it is reversing it's 8 year policy effective for the class of 2008 of not disclosing grades of graduate students. It will be possible once again to disclose your GPA to a perspective employer if you graduate from HBS.

 

In the engineering field, grades matter if you are an entry level engineer or intern seeking your first position. When I finished my BS degree, I was already a Staff Engineer so no one noticed that I even finished (or seemed to care). Same with the MBA.

I have found that a high GPA does not equate to ability. When I interview a technician or engineer candidate, I give a fairly easy test on Op Amps (drawing a schematic and asking the candidate what the output is and why). I had a Stanford EE fail 100% of the questions. On the other hand, I had this kid from DeVry knock me out of the water as far as electronics knowledge. (and the kid had only a 3.0 gpa which is low for DeVry standards).

 

If that was the original question, it was certainly lacking . . .

I'm in education and my employers have looked at courses and grades -- when looking to see who could cover advanced or obscure courses.

 

Wow, this thread is still going?

For the most part, no, grades do not matter, as long as a degree is conferred on you. There are a few exceptions.

• Some graduate schools require an undergraduate GPA of 3 or 3.5 in the last two years of college, but there are ways around this, so does your undergraduate degree GPA really matter?
  
• I have seen some Federal websites that said that they would look at an applicants GPA for graduate-level college credits if the applicant had not actually been awarded a Masters degree.
  
• Can you imagine having someone who wants to examine your GPA for a doctoral degree that has been conferred on you?

 

Don't know, but just out of curiosity, would a doctoral student need a 3.0 or a 3.5 to graduate?

 

When I was in graduate school, a student was allowed to get two Cs. If he got a third C, then he was dismissed from the program.

While I would prefer to get all A's... with what I know now, I would simply be happy to be conferred a doctoral degree with a bunch of Bs. The conferral of the degree is the most important event.

 

Say you're a prospective employer, maybe looking to fill that CFO slot.

Which is better, a guy from an impressive school who won't tell you his grades, a guy from an impressive school with a low GPA, or the guy from a good but not super-school with a 3.9+ GPA?

I know what I would choose.

 

Which would you choose:

• A Harvard graduate with a 2.0 GPA or
• A DL graduate with a 4.0?

LOL

 

I'd be very surprised if any organization large enough for a CFO would consider GPA. GPAs are considered at the beginning of one's career, not at pinnacle positions.

 

Law school grade DO matter! FOREVER!

Lawyers soon find out that their law school transcripts bind them like Jacob Marley's chains and cash boxes for at least the first ten years of practice. If you move around after that, they matter even LONGER. (MY transcript is so old it's written in Linear B and yet my present employers, Judges before whom I had actually PRACTICED for a half dozen years, WANTED TO SEE MY TRANSCRIPTS.)

EVERYONE, private firms, government, the military, LL.M. programs, EVERYONE wants to see your law school transcript.

Class Rank and School Rank (whether national, regional or local) ALSO matter FOREVER.

For those interested in teaching law, grades count right behind the name of the school and one's publication history.

I see NO reason to believe that a D/L J.D. would be spared. In fact, I'll just about guarantee that the D/L grad's law school transcript will prove MORE important as a way of showing "legitimacy".

 

I'd take the 4.0 DL grad.

The Harvard grad admittedly went to a top notch school but with a 2.0 he barely graduated. It's very likely that he has a list of D grades on that transcript which contributed very much to his minimal performance.

Being "coach", I don't tollerate minimal, slacker, "get by" performance very well and would likely find this person an annoyance. It's likely that he takes equal care with his personal grooming, attention to detail, personal finances, etc...

While he did graduate from Harvard, he will find it difficult, if not impossible, to go on to graduate school.

The 4.0 DL grad may not have attended such a prestigious institution, but it appears that he gave the effort 110%. He probably gives a 110% effort in everything he does and will likely make a very good worker.

At the very least, the 4.0 grad figured out how to wrk within the system to maximize his output. It's possible that he's just naturally bright and still again possible that he attended an "easy" program. The 2.0 grad is either not very bright, is a slacker, or fights the system.

Now, if we were talking a 3.0 Harvard grad or a 4.0 tier 3/4 DL grad; leans toward the 3.0 Harvard grad.

just my opinions...

 

I hire teachers for a large school system and it matters to us in a couple of different ways. I have hired people in lots of different professions (from healthcare to nuclear engineering) over the years and the public schools have been the only one in which transcripts are required as a condition of employment.

I have seen the GPA as important for three different reasons:

My thinking is that you probably don't want me hiring some guy who who struggled through his science courses with C's and D's teaching those same subjects to your kids.

The state (MD) also pays GPA bonuses to new hires -- so another incentive to keep those grades up.

Last, but not least, a lot of states are implementing alternative teacher certification programs to hire teachers without teaching certificates and to put them into certification programs. Our state requires these folks to have a 3.0 GPA or better to be eligible for the program.

Other than in education, though, I don't see it being a big deal unless you're planning to further your studies and need a strong GPA as an admissions requirement or for your employer to foot the bill.